To finish off our spring break, Sarah and I went to The Birchmere last night for the first time to see Tracy Grammer and Richard Shindell. The Birchmere's a pretty decent place to go. The food's O.K., though the prices are predictably high. Surprisingly, some of the best seats weren't taken at all and some of the worst ones were scooped up readily. Maybe people just like seeing the stage head on, no matter how far back they were, but we got seats just to the side of the stage that provided a perfect view. It may not have worked out so well had it been a full band, but there were never more than 3 people on stage at any one time and quite a lot of the time, it was only 1.
Anyhow... the show was great and we had a really good time. Sarah's been a big fan of Tracy Grammer (and the late Dave Carter, who wrote all of the duo's songs) ever since she saw her at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival last summer, so she really enjoyed her set. She played with a stand-up bass player most of the time, though Richard Shindell came out to play on a few songs.
After her set, there was a brief pause before Richard Shindell came out to play. He played by himself for a while, then Tracy Grammer came out to play mandolin, violin, and guitar on a number of his tunes before she departed. She returned for the encore.
The sound was quite good and the music was great. We had a good time. Our waiter was a bit surly, and I'm sure he was even more pissed that we only ordered some snacks. But oh well. We probably tipped him more than he deserved.
We'll be returning to The Birchmere on Friday for a Kris Delmhorst show, so hopefully that'll be just as entertaining.